Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open Publication No. 2006-142892 (JP 2006-142892 A) discloses a vehicle interior mirror device for confirming the conditions in the rear seats. The disclosed vehicle interior mirror device will be described below with reference to FIG. 6 hereof.
As shown in FIG. 6, the interior mirror device 201 includes a housing body 202 and a lid for covering the storage space of the housing body 202, which lid is divided into a first lid 203 and a second lid 204. A mirror 205 is disposed on the second lid 204 for confirming the conditions of the back seats.
However, with the interior mirror device 201 described above, there is a problem in that the eyes of passengers or occupants reflected in the mirror 205 meet when the condition of the occupants in the rear seat is confirmed, and some people may have concern about being watched and feel discomfort.
For example, a child seated in a rear seat is reflected in the mirror 205 and the face, posture and other conditions can be seen, but the face of a person other than the child seated in the seat adjacent to the child is reflected in the mirror 205 at the same time, eye contact is made with the person reflected in the mirror, and relatively large number of people feel uncomfortable with such a circumstance.
A similar situation also occurs with a common interior mirror device other than the mirror 205 described above. When traffic conditions behind the vehicle are ascertained in the interior mirror device, the faces of the occupants in the rear seats and, more particularly, the eyes are reflected together with the conditions. As a consequence, there is a problem in that the eyes will meet and there are a relatively large number of people who feel discomfort.